George Lucas & Parting Ways With Star Wars

This is terribly sad. It further promotes some speculation that Michael Arndt’s original screenplay was all-but-thrown-out. Arndt, writer of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3, was brought on-board to reflect the vision of Lucas and continue the story of Skywalker which is THE core narrative component to Star Wars. Disney/Kennedy/Kasdan/Abrams have apparently not only tossed everything Arndt wrote, which led to the removal of the expanded universe canon, but it has removed Lucas’ ideas altogether.

Now this doesn’t automatically mean the franchise is wrecked going-forward. Arguably the best of Star Trek (the later TNG seasons and DS9) came following the dis-involvement and passing of Gene Roddenberry. But the Abrams-led reboots, while mildly-appealing to a general audience, are NOT well-liked by core Trekkies, including my grandfather who refers to them as “a bunch of boom bah.”

I must reserve judgement and remain optimistic until December 18th. But it’s hard to consider that the storied vision of arguably the most influential artist of the 20th century is now completely absent from Star Wars going forward. If things go bad, I really don’t know how Disney is going to handle the power of of the Dark Side. If you thought the backlash over Lost was bad, then you can’t imagine what a real shit-show looks like. Regardless, it’ll probably be the highest-grossing movie of all-time. And then we’ll get another. And another. “I’ll be making these movies ’til the end of time.”-Weird Al

Room: Worth a Trip to the Cinema

Room​ will certainly emerge from 2015 as one of the year’s 10 Best Pics. Featuring some marvelous storytelling techniques, this emotional roller coaster plays equal parts discomfort, terror, and warmth. There was a good 7-8-minute stretch where I’m pretty sure I forgot to breathe. Brie Larson would be a shoo-in (if not the front-runner) for Best Actress, but I worry that limited marketing from a minor distributor might get it pushed out of the conversation down the road. Campaigning’s a bitter pill for those that don’t have the spending capabilities of the big studios. That said, it’s hard to imagine that helmer Lenny Abrahamson could have possibly gotten any more out of Larson and young Jacob Tremblay. They deserve any conversation that comes their way.

Well worth the price of a cinematic experience if only to feed your undivided attention. A home-viewing wouldn’t have done it for me in the same way. Do yourself a favor and avoid seeing the full trailer. I didn’t see it until today, and it seems to deal out more than should be necessary to get you in a seat (the teaser embedded here should be plenty for you).

[Edit 11/15/15 7:01PM: “shoo-in”]